Many of you will know that Alma and Suzie are both registered Severely sight impaired / Blind. You will also know that we are not a family of runners, so this 5k sensory experience will be a challenge to us all! Everyone presumes Guide Dogs just breed and train the dogs however there is so much more that the charity does for visually impaired / blind people from birth right through adulthood.

When Alma was first diagnosed we accessed support via Guide Dogs family support services. We attended their weekend for children with a recent diagnosis, which was a great opportunity to talk to their trained staff and spend time with other parents in a similar situation. We continue to access support from them and in particular family days out. These days are a great opportunity for Alma and Suzie to get to know other children with visual impairments so that they learn there are other children just like them. Visual impairment from birth is a very rare disability, and so Alma and Suzie wouldnt get the opportunity to meet other children without events like these! As Alma is getting older this is becoming more important and she loves to meet other children who have a cane just like her.

Alma and Suzie are lucky to have cane training provided by Staffordshire council but not all children are given this support, and guide dogs provides rehabilitation officers to support children and adults with cane training. They also offer a range of other support including large print books and my guide services.

We want to support Guide Dogs because the work of the charity is so important to us personally, but also helps to improve the lives of many blind and visually impaired people. They dont call the dogs Life changers for nothing, and Alma says she wants a Guide Dog one day so we best keep this charity going :-)

Guide Dogs say:

In the UK today, almost two million people are living with sight loss and of those, around 180,000 rarely leave their homes alone. Many suffer from depression and struggle with feelings of isolation.Guide Dogs is here to help solve this problem. We provide individual support that overcomes the emotional and physical challenges faced by people living with sight loss.We work for a world where people with sight loss are never left out of life. We work for a world where blind people no longer feel invisible, where the quality of their eye sight is genuinely the only difference between them and the rest of society. A world with enough support to make the challenges of sight loss no barrier to fulfilling your needs and dreams. A world where being blind or partially sighted isn't what defines you.